


Three Words, Eight Letters.

by lornrocks



Category: Fandom: Heroes
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Happy Ending, M/M, Slash, a little bit of peter whump, gabrielisreluctant, hurtcomfort, iloveyou, peterisloving, petlar, plainwhitets, promptfest, pylar, whatever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-24
Updated: 2013-06-24
Packaged: 2017-12-16 00:43:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/855828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lornrocks/pseuds/lornrocks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on this prompt from the Petlar promptfest, <i>I would like Peter to be comfortable with telling Sylar that he loves him. I think on the other hand Sylar I think would have a hard time saying it back...and go!</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Three Words, Eight Letters.

**One Thing.**

Gabriel was having a hard day. A really, incredibly, stupid, terrifying, unusual day. He was _this close_ to snapping and hurting Emma, or someone else equally tempting, someone he would have killed before.

But now, he's changed, and Peter is ready to defend him to the last breath to anyone who thinks otherwise. So one day, when he comes home from work and finds Gabriel sitting on the floor of the bedroom, back against the bed and shaking, he immediately sits down next to him and wraps his arms around him.

"Hey, you're okay, you're okay," he soothes, but Gabriel just continues to stare at the floor like the other man wasn't even there.

Sighing, Peter reaches a hand up to stroke through long, disheveled hair and waits, mumbling encouragement as best as he can.

"You're better than this, and you're going to get through this," he begins, and when the tremors start to calm down, he continues, encouraged. "Want to know how I know? Because I trust you, and I know you, more than you know."

He thinks for a long, long moment before leaning over to press his lips against Gabriel's forehead.

"I love you," he breathes, and Gabriel's movements still.

For a moment, Peter wonders if Gabriel is going to get up and leave, but then he just closes his eyes and leans into Peter's touch.

Peter starts mumbling again.

**To Do.**

A few weeks have passed since Peter dropped the L-bomb and Gabriel stayed. He didn't ask Peter about it, and they didn't talk about it, but every so often he would come up to Peter and wrap him in a silent embrace.

Peter didn't mind.

In fact, he believed his continuance to tell the other man how he felt was detrimental to his recovery process. After all, part of the reason he became Sylar was because he was so lonely and unloved.

Peter decides it's going pretty well. So much so, he starts to talk more and more about everything, like them, and the future, and even if Gabriel just stares at the floor or some other point while Peter talks, at least he's listening.

"You know I mean it when I tell you I love you," Peter says out of the blue, and Gabriel's eyes flicker up, just minutely, to catch Peter's.

"I know," he replies, so quiet that Peter has to lean in to hear.

Taking a risk, Peter reaches across the table and entwines their fingers, feeling pleased when Gabriel doesn't snatch his hand away.

**Three Words.**

It's not that Peter is looking for Gabriel to say it back. Best case scenario, he returns Peter's feelings and they live happily ever after, blah blah blah (or whatever that might be, their fucked up past aside).

Worst case scenario, Gabriel leaves and Peter never sees him again, and he'll probably relapse into his old ways.

But since Peter tries to be optimistic now that he has such a brooding, depressed roommate, he tries to hope for the best. What he wasn't hoping for, though, was to find himself with a bed full of Gabriel one night.

When he had abandoned the mattress he slept on in the living room and moved into Peter's room, Peter had no idea, but he wasn't complaining, not when he was being so thoroughly ravished (and honestly, who uses that word anymore? It must be love).

Peter lets Gabriel do whatever he wants to him, lets him mark him with teeth and tongue, lets him spread him open and fuck him into the mattress, and it's good, it's just so _good_ , and Peter can't even help crying out, "I love you," right before he comes undone.

Gabriel doesn't say it back, but the choked off version of Peter's name on his lips as he follows is music to Peter's ears.

**For You.**

What Peter never considered was that people were going to start noticing things. Like one time at work when he was talking to Gabriel on the phone about groceries he needed and he ends the call with a "Love you, bye."

Hesam's eyebrows shoot to his hairline and almost instantly he's at Peter's side, quizzing him.

"Who's that? Are you seeing someone? Do I know her? Or...uh, him?"

Peter mentally rolls his eyes but laughs out loud anyway.

"Him, and yeah, you do."

Peter keeps walking, not even noticing the way Hesam has stopped dead in his tracks ten feet back.

"You're dating your roommate? Seriously?"

Pete whirls around and glares, especially because his partner's outburst made all the nurses around stop and stare.

"Can we talk about this someplace not so...public?"

Begrudgingly, Hesam agrees and they head out to grab some coffee down the street. Somehow, and Peter's not really sure how, his friend somehow convinced him to spill everything, and so Peter blathers and blathers until he finds he doesn't know what else to say, and Hesam takes a sip of his coffee and thinks for a moment.

"You're going to get hurt, Pete. If he's not saying it back, then...well, I don't know if he ever will."

Suddenly Peter's coffee seems uninteresting as he twists his mouth into a pout and stares at the ground.

"He's just not comfortable with the idea of love, that's all. He'll see, I'll show him."

A warm hand is placed on his shoulder and Peter shrugs it off.

"I just don't want you to get hurt," Hesam says, but Peter just shakes his head and stomps down the street. He was being immature, but maybe Hesam was right. He heads straight to the apartment and over to the couch, where Gabriel is humming to himself as he reads.

Peter crawls into his lap and wraps his arms around the other man's neck, sighing, "I love you."

Tentative hands reach up to rub soothing circles into Peter's back, and he relaxes.

"Tough day?" Gabriel asks, and Peter just nods against his shoulders.

Carefully, as if afraid he might say the wrong words, Gabriel whispers, "Well, you're home now."

And for the first time in a long time, Peter realizes that he's right.

**I love you.**

Since them getting together in the first place was caused by incredibly dramatic circumstance, it was only fitting that the first time Gabriel told Peter he loved him was after such an event.

Peter was at the bank one morning before work, making a deposit, when some guys in masks came in and started trying to rob the place. Despite only having Emma's power, he tries to stop them from smacking around a scared, doe-eyed college girl, and for all his trouble gets shot in shoulder. Luckily, it misses the important stuff, but he's still stuck in the hospital, half asleep because his nurse friends knew how to get him the good pain killers.

Emma sneaks Gabriel in after visiting hours and Hesam stands guard outside the door, making sure no one important tries to go in and evict Gabriel from the room.

"Your hero complex is going to be the death of me," Gabriel sighs, cradling one of Peter's hands between both of his own.

"And probably me," Peter mumbles, tongue fuzzy from the meds.

Gabriel's face falters, and he squeezes his hands.

"Don't...just don't say that, Peter. Please."

Peter tries to lift his hand, the one that Gabriel wasn't currently keeping hostage, to wave the sentiment away, but for some reason his whole body feels really heavy, so he just shifts a little.

"I'm fine, you know. I should be able to go home tomorrow." His eyelids feel heavy, so he closes them, just for a moment.

Gabriel must think he's fallen asleep, because he starts to talk, low and slow, and Peter wonders briefly if he's lucid dreaming, because he swears he just heard Gabriel say that he loves him.

"I love you," Gabriel says, and it doesn't sound forced or rushed, just a little drawn out and sure.

"And even when you pull stupid shit like this...well, it just makes me love you even more."

Vaguely, Peter feels the soft pressure of a kiss being pressed to his forehead, just like the one he gave to Gabriel all that time ago, and he lets the corner of his lips quirk up as much as he can manage.

"I'm sorry it took so long for me to realize just what I have, here."

Desperately so, Peter tries to open his eyes and smile, but it's a little difficult, and he must look horrible, but when he manages to pry his lids open, he's met with the sight of Gabriel, five o'clock shadow growing rampant across his features and a relieved warmth in his eyes.

"I knew...someday...love...you," Peter manages to say, before he can't keep his eyes open anymore and he falls down, down down.

He wakes up with warm hands curled around his and a drooping head pressed against his shoulder. And maybe, for once, Peter knows he can stop worrying, stop trying so hard, because things are okay.

Dark eyes slowly open and Gabriel yawns, "Good morning," and Peter closes his eyes again, happy to just lay there for a while.

"Yeah, it is," he replies, feeling something other than warmth filling his chest.

It must be love, he decides.

**Author's Note:**

> Written a long time ago for LJ.


End file.
